You can pass HPV to a partner even if your warts are treated, since HPV can stay in your skin after the bumps are gone. However, it's not the end of your sex life or reproductive life.
You can still have a satisfying sex life, but you will need to be open and honest with your partner. Get the warts treated by a doctor and use condoms to help cut down the chance of spreading it to your partner. Don't forget -- you may have gotten the warts from your current partner who may have a silent infection.
HPV infection itself does not mess up your ability to have babies.
In young women, HPV infection may actually go away for good. How long that takes and in which women that will happen is not known.
Effective treatments for genital warts are definitely available. These include:
Home treatments:
· Condylox -- a liquid medicine
· Aldara -- a cream medicine
Office treatments:
· cryotherapy (freezing)
· acid treatment
· electrodessication (burning off the warts with an electric current)
· surgical removal
· laser treatment
Discuss with your doctor which treatment is right for you, since each has its own side effects and risks.
What's All the Worry About HPV?
The big deal about HPV is not that it causes wart bumps, since those are usually easy to detect and treat.
The big deal is that there is a strong association between HPV infection and pre-cancerous and cancerous changes of the cervix, vulva and penis. In women, these cervical changes can be found on a PAP test. Also, gay men with anal warts have an increased risk of getting anal cancer.
Certain types of HPV (there are more than 70 of them) are more strongly associated with these pre-cancerous and cancerous changes. For example, HPV types 6 and 11 usually cause external genital warts and are considered low risk for cancer. HPV types 16 and 18 often infect the cervix and are considered high risk for cancer.
There are tests to detect these different HPV types but they are not routinely done since they don t really change how the problem is managed. You still need regular check-ups with your doctor.
